Prince William Sleeping Rough

These are actions that a mother can be proud of. Prince William, second in line to the British throne, spent a rather cold night in an alley in central London. This rather peculiar sleeping arrangement was in efforts to understand the plight of homelessness among British teenagers. Accompanying William on that chilly night was Seyi Obakin, chief executive of British homeless charity Centerpoint. And don’t even think that for one second…that the Prince was treated like royalty. He picked a cold time to be roughing it, as temperatures dropped to a chilly four degrees Celsius (thirty-four degrees Fahrenheit).

“I cannot, after one night, even begin to imagine what it must be like to sleep rough on London’s streets night after night,” William said Tuesday. “Poverty, mental illness, drug and alcohol dependency and family breakdown cause people to become and then stay homeless.”

This isn’t the first time William has been exposed to homelessness, being a patron of the organization since 2005. Back in 1996, when he was only 13, his mother (Princess Diana) took him and his brother (Prince Harry) to visit the facility. The idea to sleep on the streets was devised back in March.

Obakin said that they found the spot behind some garbage bins and then settled for a restless night. “But there was no shielding from the bitter cold, or the hard concrete floor, or the fear of being accosted by drug dealers, pimps or those out to give homeless people a ‘good’ kicking,” he said.

William is also currently training to be as Royal Air Force search-and-rescue pilot. Looks like Prince Charming might just end up also being a hero as well.